The Astra SDR family is Wide Swath Research’s flagship line of software-defined radar platforms. Built on high-performance FPGA and SoC technology, Astra SDRs provide multi-channel, wideband digital backends with onboard processing — enabling customers to rapidly prototype, deploy, and customize advanced radar systems.
With configurations covering frequency bands to X-band and beyond, Astra SDRs deliver the flexibility to support terrestrial, airborne, and spaceborne radar applications. Each series in the Astra family is designed around a maximum frequency capability, ensuring the right balance of performance, size, and power for your mission.
Hardware Platforms
C-Series
Optimized for up to C-band radar applications, the C-Series is our most mature Astra product line.
- Current Focus: Astra SDR C55 — a mid-range, RFSoC-based platform with integrated converters for compact, efficient designs.
- Key Features:
- RFSoC-based integration
- Wideband, multi-channel sampling with multi-module synchronization
- Onboard FPGA processing with optional Ad Astra™ OS support
- Compact ruggedized form factor for lab, airborne, or embedded use
- Applications: FMCW radars, pulse radar, synthetic aperture radar, remote sensing, airborne/terrestrial experiments
👉 [ Contact us about C-Series SDRs ]
X-Series (Coming Soon)
Expanding Astra into the X-band, the X-Series is under active development. Designed to support higher-frequency sensing systems, the X-Series will provide increased bandwidth and tighter integration for advanced applications.
- Preview Highlights:
- Optimized for X-band frequency coverage
- Enhanced ADC/DAC performance for higher-fidelity experiments
- FPGA/SoC-based digital backend for flexible processing
- Availability: Early prototypes in development — more details coming soon.
👉 [ Contact us about X-Series SDRs ]
Future Series
The Astra roadmap extends across additional frequency bands, including L, S, Ku, Ka, and W-band systems.
Astra™ Operating System
Astra SDRs are powered by Astra™ OS, a radar-focused operating environment that bridges the gap between hardware and application software. Built on a Linux foundation, Astra OS provides a consistent interface for controlling hardware, configuring radar modes, and streaming high-bandwidth data.
Key Features:
- Unified Control Interface – Configure channels, timing, and waveforms without low-level FPGA programming.
- Streaming & Storage – High-throughput data movement for real-time experiments and large dataset capture.
- Extensible Architecture – Integrate custom signal processing algorithms into the existing framework.
- Development Tools – API support for Python, C++, and MATLAB workflows.
Why It Matters:
With Astra OS, researchers and engineers can focus on radar algorithms and applications rather than low-level bring-up. It provides a common environment across all Astra SDRs and the Radar Testbed, reducing learning curves and speeding time to experiment.
Customization & Flexibility
Astra SDRs are not fixed-function boxes — they’re flexible platforms built for customization. Customers can:
- Extend Astra firmware and signal processing pipelines with their own algorithms
- Leverage Astra™ OS for a turnkey development environment
- Configure hardware and channel counts to match unique radar requirements
Why Astra SDRs?
- Purpose-built for radar (not general SDRs adapted for radar)
- Multi-channel, wideband capability in compact form factors
- Seamless path from prototype to deployed system
- Proven expertise from decades of radar backend design at NASA, JPL, and industry
Ready to explore Astra SDRs for your radar program?